10 Cold Weather Book and Music Pairings for Deep Thinkers

Reading a book while listening to music that relies heavily on a singer is a difficult challenge, as the lyrics that are being crooned or screamed into your ears (or both, if you’re going through Nick Cave’s discography) could interfere with your ability to soak up every word on the page. But let’s say you really want to listen to Nick Cave while you’re reading. What works best if you want to really concentrate on a book while listening to music? In honor of the current cold snap, which may well be keeping you inside with your paperback and vinyl libraries, we present a second round of suggestions.

Read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road while listening to the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis score for The Road.

If you’re one of the few folks left who still hasn’t found the time to read McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic Pulitzer Prize winner, let us suggest cracking it open while listening to the very forbidding Cave-Ellis score that was made for the film adaptation. Then watch the movie so you can see how well the two members of the Bad Seeds nailed the feeling McCarthy was going for.